Is Enhanced SpeedStep on the Horizon?

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

NEW YORK–Is an enhanced SpeedStep power-management scheme on the way from Intel?

As Intel Corp. last week predicted, the company demonstrated new Tualatin mobile processors–now called the Pentium III-M–as part of the PC Expo show Wednesday. Compaq designed a new mini-notebook around the chip, the N200 (pictured, below).

According to Intel executives, the Pentium III-M will feature performance enhancements above and beyond the power reduction caused by the process shrink. Two sources referred to the technology as “Enhanced SpeedStep”. Intel executives declined to comment.

Amid sluggish desktop PC sales, notebook sales have fared well. According to GartnerGroup, notebook sales during the fourth quarter grew 21.1 percent year-over-year, compared to sales of about 1.6 percent for desktops. That’s led to an increase in hype over new notebooks, notebook chips, and especially the technologies used in extending a notebook’s battery life.

Wednesday, Compaq introduced the N200, a ultraportable notebook Compaq executives touted as having “all-day” battery life. However, the N200 ships with a lithium-ion battery that allows only up to four hours of battery life–at one point, Ken Willett, vice-president of product management at the Commercial PC Group at Compaq, said the battery would generate 3.5 hours of battery life. An additional external “barrel” battery provides an additional four hours and adds another pound to the N200’s normal 2.5-pound weight.

The presentation didn’t impress one analyst. “I bought a Sony Vaio two years ago that did the exact same thing: same screen size, same battery configuration, everything,” said Jon Peddie, principal analyst with Jon Peddie Associates, Mill Valley, Calif.

Peddie said he purchased a Sony Vaio Z505. Officials at Sony Electronics also claimed the thin-and-light SR series had boasted between 3.5 to 5.5 hours of battery life throughout its two-year existence.

The Compaq N200 includes the Pentium III-M, which will be shipped at 1133 MHz in the third quarter, according to Frank Spindler, vice-president and general manager of Intel’s Mobile Platforms Group. “In addition to higher frequencies we’ve built into it some secret sauce that allows higher performance per clock,” Spindler said of the power management technologies. “The best way isn’t to drive frequencies high. The performance enhancements inside the Pentium-M include new and better power management technologies.”

Typically, Intel builds power-management technologies into its mobile chips, which allow clock throttling and the ability to run at lower voltages. On one hand, Intel executives vociferously defended their power-management scheme, which toggles the CPU into a minimum-power state if running off of a notebook battery.

Users don’t really have too much control over this option; however, although some power-management schemes artificially throttle the power down.

Sources at the PC Expo show here said that may change. “It’s being called Enhanced SpeedStep; that’s been confirmed for us,” one source said. “You know that Intel’s (chips) sort of go on and off; now they’re addressing the gray area between those.”

Mike Ritter, director of consumer marketing at Gateway Inc., San Diego, agreed that Intel has bundled new power-management technology together into the new Pentium III-M processors. “I don’t know that you could pick it apart and identify every single piece, but yeah, it’s there.”

Intel’s power-management scheme has been a particular bone of contention among its competitors, as both the methods used by AMD and Transmeta include a range of power modes. AMD’s PowerNow! Technology can theoretically shift between 32 combinations of power and voltage, which can also be set by the user. Transmeta’s LongRun technology used by its Crusoe attempts to provide just enough performance to get the job done, before dropping quickly down into a low-power state.

Intel’s approach is to toggle quickly between maximum performance and the lowest power mode. “The question to ask is simply what chip offers the best consumption,” said Don MacDonald, director of Intel’s mobile products group in San Diego. “Focusing on whether this chip does it at 32 levels or 16 states misses the beat. It’s irrelevant.”

Neither MacDonald nor Spindler would comment further on the details of the Pentium III-M.

According to AMD, Intel has been forced to aggressively ramp its process technology to keep up with AMD’s alleged performance leadership on a clock-per-clock basis, said Mark Bode, product manager for AMD’s Computational Products Group in Austin.

The Compaq N200 notebook will be priced at under $2,000 and marketed at both the U.S. and Japanese markets this fall, Compaq’s Willett said. Spindler also confirmed that a mobile version of the Pentium 4 will begin shipping in the first half of next year.

However, Spindler also said that an ultra-low-voltage version of the mobile Pentium 4 was not planned as it did not meet the “portability” needs of the target machines.

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

ExtremeTech Newsletter

Subscribe Today to get the latest ExtremeTech news delivered right to your inbox.

Email

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our
Terms of Use and
Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time.